Irish Mythology in Glorantha

[Carcosa]

Here is a question I posed to Jeff, and thought maybe it would be more appropriate to post it here:

“Just catching up on your Glorantha podcasts, and it was great to hear you mention Cuchullain… I’m a big fan of Irish mythology, including the Battle of Moytura, the Cattle Raid of Cooley, and have read the Llewylen books on Finn MacCuhal, Cuchullian etc. How would you say this stuff figures into Glorantha?”

I am somewhat new to Glorantha over the past several years, although I did own a broken version of the Avalon Hill version of Runequest back in the 80’s… man that looked like fun but the rules were incomplete. More recently I have built up a library of Glorantha stuff including the Guide and the King of Sartar which I am currently reading. Still it seems overwhelming.

I can see perhaps traces of Celtic society in the Sartarites combined with other cultures, but it would be great to see other peoples views on this…

[Simon Phipp]

I can’t think of any of the Irish Myths that have been ported across to Glorantha in their entirety.

However, Irish Mythology is an excellent source of Heroic myths/legends, especially suitable for HeroQuesting. Pretty much all of it could be used, in some form, in Glorantha.

[Jeff Richard]

Hey –

I’m a very big fan of Irish heroic literature, and like the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Argonautica, the Bhagavad Ghita, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, Egil’s Saga and the Viking Romances, these stories give us a portal into a “heroic society” like that of the Orlanthi.

[Charles]

My feeling is that the approach of the ancient Irish myths is so deeply integrated into Glorantha that it is almost invisible. In particular, the treatment of heroes by their contemporaries, the importance of their ancestry and the visual effects when heroes fully manifest their powers is practically lifted wholesale from The Tain.

[Author]

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